Bulgaria, Romania Launch Wave of Anti-Fracking Protests

Scores of Bulgarians crossed Wednesday the border with Romania at the Durankulak - Vama Veche checkpoint to join the Romanians' protest against plans for drilling for shale gas in the country.

The march is part of a wave of anti-shale gas protests scheduled throughout Romania and Bulgaria for later Wednesday.

Rallies are called for 5 pm EET in Bucharest, Cluj, Sibiu, Mangalia, Iasi, Sigisoara and Brasov in Romania, and for 6 pm Sofia, Varna and Dobrich in Bulgaria.

Romanians and Bulgarians fear that plans of US energy giant Chevron to explore for shell gas might lead to pollution in the Dobrudzha (Dobrogea) region their share.

The hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, technique used in shell gas extraction is known to be highly hazardous for ground water.

One of the drilling points is Vama Veche, right next to the border with Bulgaria.

Chevron had also expressed interests in drilling on the Bulgarian side of the border, but large anti-fracking rallies forced the Bulgarian parliament to impose last February a moratorium on all shale gas drilling in the country.

Wednesday's rallies, called on World Environment Day, are part of a campaign from Bulgarian and Romanian environmental organizations calling for a global ban on fracking.

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This is the second article today on Ro and Bg anti fracking protests (the first one was even more pompous and was not actualy news but anounced the protests to come). And the second one is almost as misleading and ridiculous as the first one. It's 8:45 in Bucharest I just watched the national broadcaster no news about it here so i resorted to the largest private news channel (known for an anti shale gas stance and anti american lobbysts just as it's known for a new manager rumoured to be a KGB/FSB liason) and at the bottom of the news contents for today there was a small mention about a few Bgs crossing the border protesting against shale gas which is under a moratorium in their home country.

There was news about shale gas on both channels today when the prime ministers of Ro and Poland met and talked about it in a possitive manner. Romania officialy explores for shale so the title and body of your today news is not reflective of Ro but either an NGO manifesto or a sponsored job (my humble country rarely gets two articles in one day from Novinite, articles that are unheard of news even for me and my conationals) from some entities that have interests against shale exploration.

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